Gunman in Iran's capital shoots dead two judges tied to 1988 mass executions

According to officials, a man shot and killed two prominent hardline judges in Iran's capital on Saturday. Both judges were allegedly involved in the mass executions of dissidents in 1988. No organization has immediately claimed responsibility for the shooting, and the victims were identified as clerics Mohammad Mogheiseh and Ali Razini.

However, Razini's involvement in the 1988 executions may have made him a target in the past, including an attempted assassination in 1999. This rare attack on the judiciary comes as Iran faces economic turmoil. According to Iran's official news agency IRNA, both clerics had served on Iran's Supreme Court.

The attack took place at the Palace of Justice in Tehran, which also serves as the headquarters of the country's judiciary and is usually heavily guarded. A bodyguard of one of the judges was injured in the attack, while the attacker himself died by suicide. The judiciary's Mizan news agency stated that "according to preliminary investigations, this person had no case in the Supreme Court and was not a client of the court branches." An investigation is currently underway to identify and arrest the perpetrators of this terrorist act.

Separately, Iranian judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir told Iranian state television that the shooter was an "infiltrator," suggesting that he had worked at the court where the shooting took place. Razini had previously been targeted, and in January 1999, as he was leaving his post as head of Tehran's judiciary, assailants on a motorcycle threw explosives at his vehicle, injuring him.

Mogheiseh has been under sanctions by the U.S. Treasury Department since 2019. At the time, the Treasury stated that he "presided over numerous unjust trials in which accusations were unproven and evidence was ignored." The Treasury also stated that "he is notorious for handing down lengthy prison sentences to numerous journalists and internet users." Mogheiseh had also brought charges against members of Iran's Baha'i minority "reportedly for holding prayer and worship ceremonies with other members."

Both men have been identified by activists and exiles as being involved in the 1988 executions, which occurred at the end of Iran's long war with Iraq. After Iran's then-Supreme Leader Khomeini accepted a UN-brokered ceasefire, the exiled Iranian opposition group, the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), heavily armed by Saddam Hussein, launched a raid across the Iranian border. Iran ultimately thwarted their offensive, but the attack laid the groundwork for subsequent sham retrials of political prisoners, militants, and others, which became known as the "Death Commissions."

International human rights groups estimate that up to 5,000 people were executed, while the MEK puts the figure at 30,000. Iran has never fully acknowledged the executions, which were apparently carried out under Khomeini's orders, though some believe that other senior officials were effectively in charge in the months before Khomeini's death in 1989. The MEK did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

While Mogheiseh never responded to allegations of his involvement in the 1988 "Death Commissions," Razini defended the commissions in a 2017 interview with the Iranian newspaper Shargh, calling them "just and completely in accordance with the law." He reportedly said, "We, the friends among 20 judges across the country, did our best to ensure the security of that time and after, and from that time, we guaranteed that the hypocrites (MEK) would never become strong in this country."